People of Note Demo Impression

The writing is self-aware and the game isn’t afraid to throw out plenty of music — and other — references in conversation, item names, or small touches in the world.

While it isn’t the first game to combine musicals and role-playing in recent years, Annapurna Interactive and Iridium Studios’s People of Note appears more than happy to get up on stage. Taking inspiration from classic turn-based RPGs and orchestrating its gameplay with plenty of musical flair, the game aims to deliver an exciting performance. RPGamer was able to get an early look at a demo of the game ahead of its public release and April launch date announcement.

People of Note is set in a world driven by music, with various lands built around different genres. The 90-minute demo lets players go through its second chapter, which sees protagonist Cadence having just set out on her quest to form a band so she can try and win the Noteworthy music contest. Her quest leads her to the Rock City of Durandis, which is currently fractured into metal, grunge, and other sub-genres, while coming under attack from the country-based Homestead. Here, she encounters guitarist Fret and swiftly tries to get him on board while becoming a bit more involved in the world’s power struggles than she’d like.

The demo sees Cadence visit the Rock City of Durandis.

The writing is self-aware and the game isn’t afraid to throw out plenty of music — and other — references in conversation, item names, or small touches in the world. The conflicts in the demo are solved rather quickly, though there’s not really enough of a sample size to suggest whether that ends up being to the game’s benefit at this stage, but what’s there is entertaining, and it promises plenty of fun interactions between the cast at the very least.

The game’s turn-based combat has a straightforward base, but enough bells and whistles to help distinguish itself. Each turn, or stanza, is divided between player actions and enemy actions according to the current time signature, which indicates the number of actions each side has. For the battles in the demo, it generally gives players one action for each character and enemies one or two actions per fighter, and defeating an enemy permanently reduces the enemy side’s actions by one. The party can go in any order, and players have a regular set of actions available: attack, abilities, and rest. Abilities use BP, with one BP restored to each character every turn, but in addition to providing a bonus to defence for that turn, resting also immediately grants two BP.

Abilities can get boosts depending on when they are used; for example, one particular offensive ability does more damage if used before any other action. In addition, each stanza takes on a different musical style, indicated in the game’s UI and its background music. Any character who plays that style of music during a turn gets a boost to their actions, helping to make smart use of abilities and managing BP an important part of the game’s strategy. In addition to their HP and BP, each character has a mashup meter that fills as they take damage. When two characters have a full mashup meter, they can perform a powerful joint attack.

Combat is based on a standard turn-based template, but has enough to distinguish itself.

An optional setting allows players to be able press a button in time with audiovisual cues to slightly boost attacks and skills. In addition, boss fights bring their own extra element, with bosses gaining crescendo as the battle goes on, powering them up and encouraging players not to act too defensively. In addition, the game features puzzle battles where players have to find the correct order of actions to defeat foes within a turn limit, which help introduce some of the strategy and skill synergies, as well as trivia encounters that test in-game knowledge/memory to receive bonus rewards. In addition to equipping an instrument (weapon), armour, and an accessory, players are able to choose their party’s abilities by equipping songstones. These can be bought from shops and found in treasure chests, with further customisation coming from remix stones that add extra effects to certain songstone slots.

The game also features some of the traditional RPG puzzles that are notably less common nowadays, with the demo chapter featuring a set where they have to get a beam to hit the required triggers. The game has some player-friendly difficulty options, with players able to readily get through puzzles and/or combat without trouble if they wish. The puzzles in the demo are straightforward to get to grips with but decently engaging, and their inclusion will be very pleasing for a certain group of RPGamers.

The musical element is covered with in-story song performances and a dynamic soundtrack.

People of Note’s musical focus means that the soundtrack is expected to play a big role, and the demo offers a strong initial showing, including a full in-story musical performance as Cadence persuades Fret to join her cause, ably performed by LEXXE and Jason Charles Miller. The game’s battle themes all have multiple versions for each potential genre, and the demo showcases this nicely with some strong early tracks that showcase the soundtrack’s dynamic nature. An early battle themes against the forces of the Homestead has plenty of country twang, but switches to Cadence’s pop and Fret’s rock as their genres take over in any combat stanzas. Multiple genres can even combine to further increase the musical offerings. The game’s voice acting is certainly enjoyable, working with the game’s nicely distinct art style to create some memorable characters. The environments are nice to look at and provide a good flavour to Durandis, while the UI is pleasingly eye-catching, even if everything leaves zero room for doubt that the game is all about music.

There’s a lot to like about the demo for People of Note. The gameplay is strong, the character interactions certainly appear entertaining, and the musical portion of the game is clearly in safe hands. The true test will be whether the game can hold up for its full length; early signs are of a very pleasing title with plenty to recommend if it can pull it all off. RPGamers won’t have too long to wait to find out, with the game arriving on April 7, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Disclosure: This article is based on a demo build of the game provided by the publisher.